John Baer

Political Columnist

John Baer has written about politics and government for the Daily News since 1987. Neither subject ever fails to provide him with stories of policies and politicians walking on or skirting by paths to perdition.

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One thing evident at the GOP convention Wednesday night was the party sure knows how to move on.

Its 2008 nominee Sen. John McCain, for example, spoke for just 13 minutes at 8 p.m., well out of network prime time, and talked about foreign policy in an election that’s about the economy.

He was warmly received but suffice it to say the roof of the Tampa Bay Times Forum never was in danger.

McCain’s `08 running mate, Sarah Palin, didn’t speak at all, apparently snubbed by the party AND by Fox News.

She issued a statement saying Fox cancelled all her scheduled Wednesday interviews.

(Perhaps she and her fans can take solace in the fact porn actress Lisa Ann, who impersonates Palin in X-rated movies, showed up in Tampa as what the New York Post called the convention’s “keynote stripper.”)

But McCain, a war hero and the party’s former standard bearer, came across, on his 76th birthday, almost as an afterthought.

He started with some humor: “I had hopes once of addressing you under different circumstances.” But then he lapsed into old familiar ground, phrases and even clichés from times, conventions and campaigns past.

There was reference to America being “a shining city on a hill.” We heard “every human life has dignity.” And we were told we face “an array of threats” from our enemies like none ever before.

As Mitt Romney focuses his bid for president on his ability to restart a stalled domestic economy, McCain’s message was focused on America drifting away from “global leadership.”

McCain said the president’s plans to get out of Afghanistan “discouraged our friends and emboldened our enemies.” He said by not getting involved in Syria, “our president is not being true to our values.”

It would not have been surprising if McCain broke into his old `07 routine of spoofing an old Beach Boys song, “bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran.”

Finally, he left the crowd with the cheery thought that unless we change our foreign policy direction by electing “my friend” Mitt Romney, “the world will grow darker, poorer and much more dangerous.”